PHILIPPINE JURISPRUDENCE - FULL TEXT

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G.R. No. L-32611 November 3, 1930
CULION ICE, FISH AND ELECTRIC CO., INC. vs.
PHILIPPINE MOTORS CORPORATION

Republic of the Philippines

SUPREME COURT
Manila

EN BANC

G.R. No. L-32611 November 3, 1930

CULION ICE, FISH AND ELECTRIC CO., INC., plaintiff-appellee,

vs.
PHILIPPINE MOTORS CORPORATION, defendant-appellant.

Gibbs and McDonough for appellant.

Benj. S. Ohnick for appellee.

STREET, J.:

This action was instituted in the Court of First Instance of Manila by the
Culion Ice, Fish & Electric Co., Inc., for the purpose of recovering from the
Philippine Motors Corporation the sum of P11,350, with interest and costs. Upon
hearing the cause the trial court gave judgment in favor of the plaintiff to recover
of the defendant the sum of P9,850, with interest at 6 per centum per annum
from March 24,1927, the date of the filing of the complaint, until satisfaction of
the judgment, with costs. From this judgment the defendant appealed.

The plaintiff and defendant are domestic corporations; and at the time of
the incident with which we are here concerned, H.D. Cranston was the
representative of the plaintiff in the City of Manila. At the same time the plaintiff
was the registered owner of the motor schooner Gwendoline, which was used in
the fishing trade in the Philippine Islands. In January, 1925, Cranston decided, if
practicable, to have the engine on the Gwendoline changed from a gasoline
consumer to a crude oil burner, expecting thereby to effect economy in the cost
of running the boat. He therefore made known his desire to McLeod & Co., a
firm dealing in tractors, and was told by Mc Kellar, of said company, that he
might make inquiries of the Philippine Motors Corporations, which had its office
on Ongpin Street, in the City of Manila. Cranston accordingly repaired to the
office of the Philippine Motors Corporation and had a conference with C.E.
Quest, its manager, who agreed to do the job, with the understanding that
payment should be made upon completion of the work.

The Philippine Motors Corporation was at this time engaged in business as

an automobile agency, but, under its charter, it had authority to deal in all sorts of
machinery engines and motors, as well as to build, operate, buy and sell the same
and the equipment therof. Quest, as general manager, had full charge of the
corporations in all its branches.

As a result of the aforesaid interview, Quest, in company with Cranston,

visited the Gwendoline while it lay at anchor in the Pasig River, and the work of
effecting the change in the engine was begun and conducted under the
supervision of Quest, chiefly by a mechanic whom Quest took with him to the
boat. In this work Quest had the assistance of the members of the crew of the
Gwendoline, who had been directed by Cranston to place themselves under
Quest's directions.

Upon preliminary inspection of the engine, Quest came to the conclusion

that the principal thing necessary to accomplish the end in view was to install a
new carburetor, and a Zenith carburetor was chosen as the one most adapted to
the purpose. After this appliance had been installed, the engine was tried with
gasoline as a fuel, supplied from the tank already in use. The result of this
experiment was satisfactory. The next problem was to introduce into the
carburetor the baser fuel, consisting of a low grade of oil mixed with distillate.
For this purpose a temporary tank to contain the mixture was placed on deck
above and at a short distance from the compartment covering the engine. This
tank was connected with the carburetor by a piece of tubing, which was
apparently not well fitted at the point where it was connected with the tank.
Owing to this fact the fuel mixture leaked from the tank and dripped sown into
the engine compartment. The new fuel line and that already in use between the
gasoline tank and carburetor were so fixed that it was possible to change from
the gasoline fuel to the mixed fuel. The purpose of this arrangement was to
enable the operator to start the engine on gasoline and then, after the engine had
been operating for a few moments, to switch to the new fuel supply. lawphil.net

In the course of the preliminary work upon the carburetor and its
connections, it was observed that the carburetor was flooding, and that the
gasoline, or other fuel, was trickling freely from the lower part to the carburetor
to the floor. This fact was called to Quest's attention, but he appeared to think
lightly of the matter and said that, when the engine had gotten to running well,
the flooding would disappear.

After preliminary experiments and adjustments had been made the boat
was taken out into the bay for a trial run at about 5 p.m. or a little later, on the
evening of January 30,1925. The first part of the course was covered without any
untoward development, other than he fact that the engine stopped a few times,
owing no doubt to the use of an improper mixture of fuel. In the course of the
trial Quest remained outside of the engine compartment and occupied himself
with making distillate, with a view to ascertaining what proportion of the two
elements would give best results in the engine.

As the boat was coming in from this run, at about 7:30 p.m. and when
passing near Cavite, the engine stopped, and connection again had to be made
with the gasoline line to get a new start. After this had been done the mechanic,
or engineer, switched to the tube connecting with the new mixture. A moment
later a back fire occurred in the cylinder chamber. This caused a flame to shoot
back into the carburetor, and instantly the carburetor and adjacent parts were
covered with a mass of flames, which the members of the crew were unable to
subdue. They were therefore compelled, as the fire spread, to take to a boat, and
their escape was safely effected, but the Gwendoline was reduced to a mere hulk.
The salvage from, the wreck, when sold, brought only the sum of P150. The
value of the boat, before the accident occured, as the court found, was P10,000.

A study of the testimony lead us to the conclusion that the loss of this boat
was chargeable to the negligence and lack of skill of Quest. The temporary tank
in which the mixture was prepared was apparently at too great an elevation from
the carburetor, with the result that when the fuel line was opened, the hydrostatic
pressure in the carburetor was greater than the delicate parts of the carburetor
could sustain. This was no doubt the cause of the flooding of the carburetor; and
the result was that; when the back fire occurred, the external parts of the
carburetor, already saturated with gasoline, burst into flames, whence the fire
was quickly communicated to the highly inflammable material near-by.
Ordinarily a back fire from an engine would not be followed by any disaster, but
in this case the leak along the pipe line and the flooding of the carburetor had
created a dangerous situation, which a prudent mechanic, versed in repairs of this
nature, would have taken precautions to avoid. The back fire may have been due
either to the fact that the spark was too advanced or the fuel improperly mixed.

In this connection it must be remembered that when a person holds himself

out as being competent to do things requiring professional skill, he will be held
liable for negligence if he fails to exhibit the care and skill of one ordinarily
skilled in the particular work which he attempts to do. The proof shows that
Quest had had ample experience in fixing the engines of automobiles and
tractors, but it does not appear that he was experienced in the doing of similar
work on boats. For this reason, possibly the dripping of the mixture form the tank
on deck and the flooding of the carburetor did not convey to his mind an
adequate impression of the danger of fire. But a person skilled in that particular
sort of work would, we think have been sufficiently warned from those
circumstances to cause him to take greater and adequate precautions against the
danger. In other words Quest did not use the skill that would have been exhibited
by one ordinarily expert in repairing gasoline engines on boats. There was here,
in our opinion, on the part of Quest, a blameworthy antecedent inadvertence to
possible harm, and this constitutes negligence. The burning of the Gwendoline
may be said to have resulted from accident, but this accident was in no sense an
unavoidable accident. It would not have occured but for Quest's carelessness or
lack of skill. The test of liability is not whether the injury was accidental in a
sense, but whether Quest was free from blame.

We therefore see no escape from the conclusion that this accident is

chargeable to lack of skill or negligence in effecting the changes which Quest
undertook to accomplish; and even supposing that our theory as to the exact
manner in which the accident occurred might appear to be in some respects
incorrect, yet the origin of the fire in not so inscrutable as to enable us to say that
it was casus fortuitus.

The trial judge seems to have proceeded on the idea that, inasmuch as
Quest had control of the Gwendoline during the experimental run, the defendant
corporation was in the position of a bailee and that, as a consequence, the burden
of proof was on the defendant to exculpate itself from responsibility by proving
that the accident was not due to the fault of Quest. We are unable to accede to
this point of view. Certainly, Quest was not in charge of the navigation of the
boat on this trial run. His employment contemplated the installation of new parts
in the engine only, and it seems rather strained to hold that the defendant
corporation had thereby become bailee of the boat. As a rule workmen who make
repairs on a ship in its owner's yard, or a mechanic who repairs a coach without
taking it to his shop, are not bailees, and their rights and liabilities are determined
by the general rules of law, under their contract. The true bailee acquires
possession and what is usually spoken of as special property in the chattel bailed.
As a consequence of such possession and special property, the bailee is given a
lien for his compensation. These ideas seem to be incompatible with the situation
now under consideration. But though defendant cannot be held liable in the
supposition that the burden of proof had not been sustained by it in disproving
the negligence of its manager, we are nevertheless of the opinion that the proof
shows by a clear preponderance that the accident to the Gwendoline and the
damages resulting therefrom are chargeable to the negligence or lack of skill of
Quest.

This action was instituted about two years after the accident in question
had occured, and after Quest had ceased to be manager of the defendant
corporation and had gone back to the United States. Upon these facts, the
defendant bases the contention that the action should be considered stale. It is
sufficient reply to say that the action was brought within the period limited by
the statute of limitations and the situation is not one where the defense of laches
can be properly invoked.

It results that the judgment appealed from, awarding damages to the

plaintiff in the amount of P9,850, with interest, must be affirmed; and it is so
ordered, with costs against the appellant.

Avanceña, C.J., Malcolm, Villamor, Ostrand, Romualdez and Villa-Real, JJ.,

concur.

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